Schwartz: Looks can be deceiving, so just make sure you look

Published 6:30 am, Monday, November 12, 2001

We've been told to be alert, to be aware of our surroundings. We know these are tough times; if something looks out of order, report it.

Easy to say, but this is a free society. We've become almost oblivious. Live and let live. But today's kind of "alert" is different. Looking suspicious could mean something minor, something we would have considered hardly an irritation a few months ago.

A few weeks ago, I was walking out of a medical office building next to Presbyterian Hospital. A car was illegally parked right in front of the door. It was definitely a no-parking zone, and the car was empty. This should have been something that was noticed immediately, but most people walking by just shrugged and walked around it.

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I asked one woman if she thought this was strange, just the kind of thing we should start noticing. An empty car parked illegally in front of a large medical building should raise a red flag.

"Oh, it's just somebody who couldn't find a parking place and wouldn't wait for one," she said. "And besides, look at that car, it's a brand-new Lexus. Nobody's going to blow up a brand-new Lexus."

Just the kind of innocence we used to be so secure in. Get real. These terrorists are not some North Dallas yuppies. They blew up four jetliners. Yes, they would blow up a Lexus.

Just last week, I was at the Fair Park Music Hall in Dallas to see the musical Aïda. It was a lovely first act, but at intermission something strange happened. I looked toward the front of the hall and saw thick smoke around the first few rows of seats. It spread across the auditorium in those rows and gradually started moving back.

I went to the back of the hall and asked two ushers what that smoke was. They were extremely nonchalant.

"Oh, I don't think it's anything," one of the ushers said. I explained that it was a lot of smoke and she should report it to her boss and let people know what was going on. She couldn't have cared less. I later found out that it was from dry ice used in the show.

What was really disturbing was that the audience was not trying to check it out.

"Be alert," the president says. We must learn what that means.

A lot of people I've talked with seem to think "suspicious" means someone wearing traditional Arab garb and carrying a machine gun. I don't think it will be that blatant.

But there are other warning signs to see, if we know what to look for. Don't feel foolish if you're wrong.

In Delray Beach, Fla., two of the hijackers bought short-term memberships at an exercise place called World Gym.

An employee says the men had Middle Eastern accents and said they were airline pilots. But for people who were supposed to operate such complicated equipment, they didn't seem to be able to figure out how to work the exercise machines.

I talked to an employee of World Gym who acknowledged that the men had been in only two times.

"Our owner has asked us not to discuss it," he said. "But there was no cause for suspicion."

News reports tell us the terrorists had been advised to look as American as possible. CNN has noted that several of the hijackers had subscriptions to some tabloid newspapers (such as the Enquirer and the Sun) where anthrax bacteria were found in the headquarters building. And in the trunk of one of the suspected suicide bomber's cars, they found an empty bag of Chips Ahoy cookies.

Does this mean that anyone who eats chocolate-chip cookies and reads the tabloids is a terrorist? No, but it does mean that they have learned some of our habits.